Saturday, July 7, 2012

International Gay European Football Championships 2013

The Irish capital has been selected from a competitive process between European cities to host the International Gay European Football Championships in the summer of 2013.

The event will take place in Dublin from June 13 to 16, 2013, bringing 32 teams from over 15 European countries to compete in the tournament, which will take place at Dublin City University Sports Grounds.

Dublin Devils FC, Ireland's gay soccer team, secured the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association (IGLFA) event after a long campaign to attract the tournament to the city.

"The event is an opportunity to showcase the best that Dublin has to offer, according to leader of the bid team, Paul O'Brien. "The influx of such a large contingent of LGBT players and their families will generate hundreds of thousands of euro for Dublin over the duration of the tournament. Now that we have officially been named as hosts for the Championship, the hard work begins to make this the most successful and memorable IGLFA tournament yet."

The Dublin Devils were formed in 2005. ""We take our football very seriously," according to Club Chairman Bill O'Rourke. "What we offer is an outlet for gay men who are interested in playing competitive football. We also have a strong social aspect to the club with kick-a bouts and social events on a weekly basis for less competitive members".

Dublin's lesbian football team, The Phoenix Tigers have been invited by the Dublin Devils to oversee the Women's Tournament which forms part of the event.

IGLFA celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year. Its primary goal is to foster and augment the self respect of lesbians and men throughout the world and to engender respect and understanding from the non-gay world, through the medium of football